Message--13 June 2011

Message—13 June 2011

Dear Family & Friends,

First we express our love to all of you; we very much appreciate our associations and relationships with each of you; and we thank you for being the great people you are.  We have been blessed by knowing you and learning from you.  Second we hope that all the fathers will have a wonderful Father’s Day next Sunday, and that you will take time to be with your families in so far as it is possible.  Our families are one of the few things we can take with us into the next life and the eternities.  We can do this if we live in harmony with the commandments included in the gospel, and also by making and keeping covenants which are included with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have had very good weather for the most part for last week.  We have only had one brief rain shower; but it has been cloudy and cool most of the time.  There were a few days when it was hot and humid.  Much of the farmland that has had standing water on has now dried up and been disked and harrowed and prepared for planting.  The majority of the farmland, not previously planted, has now been planted.  I am sure those farmers who have planted corn have had to plant corn seed that will mature in 70 to 80 days instead of the normal 120 days; due to the late planting.  Some of the farmland still has a few places that are still too wet to grow any crops; but from what I have been told the farmers are used to these kind of wet years so they just do the best they can and hope for good crops from what does get planted.

We made a few trips this past week to some apartments which needed air conditioners and fans so the missionaries could be cool enough to study in their apartments.  One of our trips was to Geneseo, which is about 50 miles South of Brockport.   A little North of Geneseo is a small town named York.  In this area there is a very large dairy which supplies most of the dairy products for Western New York.

While we were there in Geneseo, the Elders shared an experience they had a few days prior to our visit.  They had received a referral to visit a 17 year old young man.  When they arrived at the home, the young man and his mother were there.  The Elders were invited in and as the Elders talked with the mother and the young man they asked him how he learned about the church.  Here is what they learned.  When the young man was 5 years old he remembers very clearly going with his father in the car and on their trip they drove by an old cabin with a large grove of trees behind it.  His father said to him, in that grove of trees God and Jesus Christ appeared to a boy named Joseph Smith.  This young man remembered this experience.  Not too long ago he had to do a report for a history class in his school and he chose to do his report on Joseph Smith.  To find information about him he looked on the internet and found the Mormon.org web site.  This report got him started to study about different religions, both Christian and Non--Christian.  In his studying he included the LDS church.  From the church web site he printed a variety of sources, including pages from the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi, some of Alma, some of 3 Nephi, and Moroni Chapter 10.  His mother said she has allowed her children to choose the religion they wanted to follow as long as it was a Christian religion; and she approved of his interest in the LDS Church.  He said after reading in Moroni Chapter 10 that he could learn for himself if what he had read was true he decided to put Moroni’s promise to the test.  He dressed in clothes similar to what he thought Joseph Smith would have worn and went to the grove of trees in the Sacred Grove and prayed.  He felt the power of the Spirit and knew the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  The Elders asked if they could teach him more about the church.  He said I already know the church is true.  The Elders said they would like to teach him about the commandments we have to obey; he said you mean the Word of Wisdom and Tithing and being morally clean.  I already know about these and I live them all.  They invited him to attend church and he said he would be there.  The Elders then asked what do you want from us.  He said I want to be baptized, when can I be baptized.  He also wanted to know when he could receive the Aaronic Priesthood; and he also said he wanted to go on a mission and teach others about the church.  The Elders said they would need to review with him what he has learned on his own to be sure he understands what he needs to know; and they set a baptism date for June 18^th.  The Geneseo Elders also learned that the Sister missionaries in Dansville are teaching the young man’s father the missionary lessons.

The Elders here in Brockport also received a referral to deliver a Bible to a 17 year old girl.  While giving her the Bible, they also shared the first lesson with her and gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it first, then the Bible and she would see how they fit together and how the Book of Mormon supports the Bible and explains Bible scriptures better in many cases.  Since she is 17 she needs to get permission from her Grandparents, who she lives with, to have the elders come back to teach her more.

Looking after the apartment needs of the missionaries keeps us busy much of the week; but our doing this relieves President Christianson from having to deal with all these needs.  It also makes the apartments better and safer for the missionaries; and also makes the apartment more inviting to have the Holy Ghost in the apartments; so we are happy to do what the President asks of us.

The restored gospel is absolutely true, the Book of Mormon will help bring us to understand Christ and his teachings and help us come unto Him.  President Monson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today.  Heavenly Father and the Savior live and love us and they answer everyone’s prayers, because He loves all of His children.  Answers we receive are not always what we want, but they are the answer that Heavenly Father knows will best help us to learn what we need to know to help us make progress towards becoming like Him.

Love,

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Richard & Maxine